The 22-year-old driver accused of crashing into a school bus carrying a Grand Junction high school wrestling team in Lakewood and causing the death of an 18-year-old passenger had no valid license, reached speeds up to 91 mph, and initially refused to answer police agents’ questions in the wreck, according to an arrest affidavit.
Denver resident Andrew Logan Miller, who has been arrested and faces multiple reckless vehicular assault and other charges, “was very escalated” and asked “‘What happened?’” and “ ‘Who did I hit?’” according to a Lakewood Police arrest affidavit in the Dec. 6 crash.
Miller also told police at the scene that “‘I knew this would happen,’ ” and that “’I had a dream about this,’ ” the affidavit said, noting Miller had extricated himself from the driver’s seat and was on the ground, unable to move because of a leg injury.
Two days after the crash, in an interview in a Denver Health hospital room where his mother, grandmother, and sister sat by, Miller told police he didn’t remember the crash, that side airbags in the 2015 Nissan Pathfinder he was driving had been removed due to a previous incident and that the brakes “were not working as they should,” though they were “not yet metal on metal,” the affidavit said. His sister and her husband, who owned the vehicle, had let him use the Pathfinder in previous months to get to work, he told police.
Miller’s license had been suspended since Feb. 5, 2022, the affidavit said.
At the scene of the crash, police determined that the Pathfinder Miller was driving with his girlfriend in the passenger seat and Julio Vasquez-Gonzalez, 18, and another boy in the back, had “swerved over the dotted lines” and hit the bus in front of the rear axle at a speed 52 mph above the posted 40 mph speed limit, the affidavit said. The impact “caused the bus to go into a clockwise spin.” The crash shattered windows, and “several kids were ejected out windows,” it said. Police saw that “several kids from the bus were lying unconscious on the ground.”
Agents found unopened alcohol containers of flavored vodka shooters and hard iced tea in the Pathfinder after the crash, the affidavit said. Miller told police those had been in the vehicle since Thanksgiving and consented to a blood alcohol test, it said.
Miller was arrested on Thursday in the case after being treated for his own injuries. Miller faces 15 charges, including reckless vehicular assault, child abuse, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and speeding more than 40 mph over the speed limit.
On Sunday, Vasquez-Gonzalez died from his injuries. Officials said Sunday that the District Attorney’s Office is considering vehicular homicide charges in light of his death, but charges will not be filed against Miller until a hearing on Friday.
The crash happened shortly after 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6. More than a dozen student-athletes and several coaches from Grand Junction’s Central High School in Mesa County were riding on the school bus. They were in Denver for a wrestling tournament. As the bus driver was turning left from northbound Kipling Street onto West Sixth Avenue, the SUV speeding south on Kipling crashed into it, according to Lakewood police.
A total of 16 people were injured, including students, coaches, and the three inside the SUV.
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